HEALTH ANXIETY EXPOSED - Living With Risk

[lgrass94]

hi there,

what would you suggest that could perhaps help me alleviate my constant, crippling fear of myocarditis?

i have tried and tried to work out WHY it bothers me so much, and is always on my mind, every day, probably once every hour!

ive tried asking myself why i am worried about it, as its considered rare, and also its more probable to develop a form of cancer or leukemia than this infection! yet i dont ever have them diseases in my mind.

i probably live through 3 viruses a year, maybe 4. They are usually 2 weeks in length and not massively problematic in terms of symptoms.
just when i think the thoughts had slowed down, eased up, a virus will come around and im back to square 1 again!

ive tried the route of a and e everytime ive had a virus or infection and they tend to do an ECG, which is usually normal. i cant keep doing this surely? plus its not fixing anything, nor will it protect or shield me from the next virus!

[Elies1948]

cancer is scary since there is no curable for it. cancer can be deadly my grandmother died from cancer and it took only a few months

[MattS.]

I got health anxiety for more then 20 years now.I`m 47 years old now. But as a matter of fact I could see signs of it already in my childhood. These memories just came back to me a little while ago. As a kid I feared that someone might poison me, wanted to find something that makes us live forever etc. I started to develop OCD while being at high school.In `97 I experienced my first episode of brain fog which didn`t last very long and I never made much of it back then as I was not really worried about health issues back then. The following years my OCD got a lot worse and then one day I started to feel spaced out got wired sensations headaches and visual problems. These were 24/7 symptoms and only going to bed and sleeping would give me some sort of relief. But then the next morning it was back to the symptoms onslaught. This must have lastet for a good 3-4 month until I found a doctor who put my worries to rest. Back then I was extremely worried that I caught vCJD and that my brain was going to waste. This was at the hight of the mad cow disease scandal in the UK. I used to live in London during that time. Anyway, I attributed the problems I had with bright lights, lightheadedness muscle twitching etc to the fact that my brain was showing signs of that illness. Moved back to Germany and visited several doctors specialized in brain disorders. After visiting one who measured my brain waves and explaining me that my brain was Ok the symptoms disappeared. My next flare up was in 2008 after moving to Japan. My father dies the year before of cancer and I started to worry about stomach cancer a lot. Again same symptoms and after a check up by the doctor I felt better. One thing I noticed though is that my symptoms felt a lot worse then during my first spell. Anyway repeat this at least a couple of time over the next few years, never had any treatment for it and then fast forward to the end of 2014. In December 2014 out of the blue and as it someone flicked a switch I realized again that I was having vision problems and that I felt uncomfortable in bright light. I got mini blackouts which made me forget things for a second. I made mistakes in word finding when talking to someone. My ability to concentrate got worse. Headaches only on my right side of the head. Spaced out feling and other things. My cognition started to decline. Again these are 24/7 symptoms and rarely were there any days when I felt normal. I would say feeling normal were random spells that happened all over sudden and lasted an hour or less and just vanished again. Following conversations became impossible I drifted in and out of them. Well I`m now 3 years into my latest spell and I had in between days maybe even a week where I felt a lot better but in general I`m on a downward slope. I can`t concentrate at all, I can`t tolerate loud noise at work anylonger, makes me totally nervous, same for to many things going on at once. But yeah my inability to concentrate is at a new low. yesterday I thought I`m loosing it because of it. The mistakes I make at work becoming more frequent and my mind is not as sharp as it used to be. Guess what I`ve been worrying about for the last 3 years- dementia. Somehow I feel like my symptoms very much match this terrible disease especially Lewy Body Dementia but then my doctor said it`s very unlikely. But I know this is a disease that can`t be diagnosed by MRI or any blood test. To make matters worse every time I read it up on the internet I feel like I`m getting worse. Just like a few days ago, I felt my memory got again a little worse and I started to check for it online in regard to dementia and now I`m a total wreck again. But how do you tell yourself it`s all fine if your symptoms are there everyday without a break. All the doctor said was "find a way to relax".Easier said then done especially if you reached a point where you are not sure anylonger if it is really only health anxiety or the real thing.

[dylansdad]

10 years ago I worked with a good psychiatrist about anxiety and depression. I became basically stable and stopped seeing him, due to price, around 2013. Last Saturday I had a 4 hour serious vertigo attack! Since then I have had serious general anxiety with all the physical components and wild thoughts of fear and wanting an immediate answer. I contacted my psychiatrist and he only had a few minutes, since I am not a current client. He said it was probably about abandonment issues. Fine, but the anxiety is still going crazy. And he is on vacation. I do not know what to do. How do you handle ongoing anxiety? I have used walking, sometimes in loops in the house to calm the body. Evidently, a big trigger was pushed last saturday. It has been a tough year. First I got thyroid cancer, very tired for weeks, and then tinnitus like you wuold not believe. Now vertigo! I think I am terrified of what might happen next to my body without my control. How do I get out of this mess?

[Ponder]

10 years ago I worked with a good psychiatrist about anxiety and depression. I became basically stable and stopped seeing him, due to price, around 2013. Last Saturday I had a 4 hour serious vertigo attack! Since then I have had serious general anxiety with all the physical components and wild thoughts of fear and wanting an immediate answer. I contacted my psychiatrist and he only had a few minutes, since I am not a current client. He said it was probably about abandonment issues. Fine, but the anxiety is still going crazy. And he is on vacation. I do not know what to do. How do you handle ongoing anxiety? I have used walking, sometimes in loops in the house to calm the body. Evidently, a big trigger was pushed last saturday. It has been a tough year. First I got thyroid cancer, very tired for weeks, and then tinnitus like you wuold not believe. Now vertigo! I think I am terrified of what might happen next to my body without my control. How do I get out of this mess?

Try walking in a straight line rather than circles. You might be pleasantly surprised.

Welcome To The Forum.

[Dahila]

oh jeez no doubts you feeling so down, Is the thyroid cancer curable? My friend had surgery and she is fine for the last ten years. Vertigo, eh man i was living with it for over 2 years and no one could help me, I went through tons of tests, finally they said something is floating in my inner ear causing it and it will eventually absorb and vertigo will be gone, I still have some when I am not careful and to fast fall on the bed especially on right side, few weeks ago I had sinus infection and vertigo is back, It is better now. Tinnitus, I suffer with it and it has nothing to do with anxiety rather my hearing loss. All this is connected Ear Nose Throat....Welcome to the forum
my advice is to see ENT doc then when you walk do not focus on the floor, straight lines are much better than circles

[p1234]

Wooow wait - anxiety from vertigo is not really normal anxiety - you can't do anything about it - vertigo is so terrible, so life changing, so disruptive on your life, that anyone would be anxious about it but this anxiety is much more than that - the anxiety from vertigo is AUTOMATIC - even if you don't have a single anxious bone in your body, if you've got vertigo you will probably get an anxiety issue with it - it just happens and its not caused by worry or stress or anything like that, its just a neurological effect on the brain - that dreadful feeling of nausea and you're completely at its mercy.

Please don't treat it like normal anxiety. With vertigo you just have to take the right medication and try to relax and not think about it and do whatever works for you to try to get it to settle down quickly.

I've been clear of vertigo for 7 years or so - I'm lucky, but I did a lot of stuff to stay clear, possibly stuff not accessible to some - but what I;ve said above was definitely true for me, and occasionally I get towards the edge of that cliff and I know its happening - all I can do is stop whatever might have caused it and try to relax and forget about it, go to sleep, etc. So far so good but I'm always just a few steps away from that edge